Newsroom Article

CyberKnife Upgrades

The CyberKnife Program at Parkview Comprehensive Cancer Center continues to make strides in improving outcomes for patients. Recent upgrades to the CyberKnife technology will greatly benefit the patient by treating more types of tumors and reducing the amount of treatment time. Brian Chang, MD, explains the technology and how it can greatly improve the quality of life for our patients.

​​The CyberKnife®​ Program at Parkview Comprehensive Cancer Center continues to make strides in improving outcomes for patients. Recent upgrades to the technology at Parkview will greatly benefit the patient, including treating more types of tumors and reducing treatment times for some patients.

One upgrade, the Iris, automatically adjusts the size of the radiation beam throughout the patient’s treatment, providing a higher level of customization that wasn't previously possible. This will further decrease our already low-risk of toxicity and allow us to treat larger/more irregularly shaped tumors. Other upgrades enhance patient convenience by reducing treatment times from 90 minutes to as little as 15 minutes for some patients.

Background information on CyberKnife®:

CyberKnife® Stereotactic Radiosurgery System is a powerful tool used in the treatment of benign and malignant tumors anywhere in the body, as well as for some functional disorders. Benefits of using CyberKnife® include:

• A non-invasive alternative to conventional surgery

• Treatment in only one to five outpatient visits

• Safe delivery of ablative doses of radiation to the tumor alone with sub-millimeter accuracy

• High rates of control (typically over 90%) and a remarkably low risk of toxicity

• Real-time tracking, accounting for tumor motion due to respiration or bowel motility